Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH) Short Interest Update

Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 2,870,000 shares, a decline of 8.6% from the November 15th total of 3,140,000 shares. Currently, 5.9% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 854,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.4 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Bread Financial news, Director John J. Fawcett purchased 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $51.02 per share, with a total value of $51,020.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 6,473 shares in the company, valued at $330,252.46. This trade represents a 18.27 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.62% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bread Financial

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,173,009 shares of the company’s stock valued at $141,386,000 after purchasing an additional 70,092 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 22.4% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,161,443 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,754,000 after purchasing an additional 212,276 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 152.9% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 645,689 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,772,000 after purchasing an additional 390,413 shares during the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt bought a new stake in shares of Bread Financial in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $576,000. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Bread Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $582,000. 99.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on BFH shares. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Bread Financial from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Bread Financial from $48.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Bread Financial from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Bread Financial from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on Bread Financial from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.54.

Bread Financial Stock Performance

NYSE:BFH opened at $65.27 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Bread Financial has a 12-month low of $28.00 and a 12-month high of $66.71. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $55.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $51.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.39 and a beta of 1.96.

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.86 by ($0.03). Bread Financial had a net margin of 6.37% and a return on equity of 13.33%. The firm had revenue of $983.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $981.26 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.46 earnings per share. Bread Financial’s quarterly revenue was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Bread Financial will post 7.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bread Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Bread Financial’s payout ratio is presently 13.38%.

About Bread Financial

Bread Financial Holdings, Inc provides tech-forward payment and lending solutions to customers and consumer-based industries in North America. It offers credit card and other loans financing services, including risk management solutions, account origination, and funding services for private label and co-brand credit card programs, as well as through Bread partnerships; and Comenity-branded general purpose cash-back credit.